Women&#039;s basketball suffers first lost of season

UMW News Bureau

The University of Montana Western Bulldogs suffered their first loss of the season against the Montana State University-Billings Yellowjackets on Friday night in Billings, 76-49. By Lowell Peterson
The University of Montana Western Bulldogs suffered their first loss of the season against the Montana State University-Billings Yellowjackets on Friday night in Billings, 76-49.
The Yellowjackets scored the first six points of the game, but Montana Western battled back to take the lead at 10-8 on six points by Hayley Pettit and a jumper by Alicia Wilson. After Annie Depuydt scored to tie things up at 10-all, Sammi Bignell made a layup at the 12:34 mark to put the Bulldogs on top for the second time at 12-10. That would be the last time Montana Western would have a lead. The Yellowjackets went on a 24-0 run over the next ten minutes to go up 34-12 at the 2:22 mark and finished the half with an 18-point lead, 36-18.
Montana Western opened the second half by scoring the first seven points to cut the lead to 36-25. Nicole Tams hit a three-pointer and followed it up with a steal and a layup. Wilson grabbed an offensive rebound and laid the ball in to cut the Yellowjacket lead to 11 points. After Janiel Olson answered with two free throws for MSU-Billings, Pettit hit a jumper to once again cut the lead to 11, but it would be the closest the Bulldogs would get the rest of the game.
Bignell led the Bulldogs in scoring with 15 points. Pettit added 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Tams had seven points and Wilson scored seven points, grabbed seven rebounds and was tops in assists with five. Bobbi Knudsen scored 18 points and Brooke Tolman added 15 to pace the Yellowjackets. Olson was the leading rebounder with six and Knudsen had five assists.
The Bulldogs fell to 7-1 on the season while MSU-Billings improved to 2-0.
Montana Western lost an exhibition game to the Montana State Bobcats on Thursday night, 83-50. Bignell, the only Bulldog to finish in double figures, scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Pettit was next in scoring with seven points and had a game-high 12 rebounds. Five players scored in double figures for Montana State led by Katie Bussey’s 25 and Rachel Semansky’s 20.
The Bulldogs hit the road for two games in Dickinson, N.D. on Nov. 25 and 26. Dickinson State is the opponent at 4 p.m. on Friday and Jamestown College at 12 p.m. on Saturday.